The Essential IP Toolkit

Learn how you can benefit from a collection of powerful command line and GUI utilities that will help you interact with TCP/IP, the protocol of the Internet and most modern networks. Explore how network administrators address platform incompatibility posed by Windows technology.

Like this article? We recommend

Like this article? We recommend

Once upon a time, operating system and networking vendors touted their
abilities to juggle multiple networking protocols with a certain degree of pride
and enthusiasm. For Windows, this meant NetBEUI, IPX/SPX (a.k.a. NWLink or
"NetWare-compatible protocol"), AppleTalk, and TCP/IP. For the
Macintosh, this meant AppleTalk and TCP/IP, with other add-ins available. For
NetWare, it meant IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, AppleTalk, and ultimately TCP/IP. For UNIX
and Linux, TCP/IP has always come first, but it too has offered its share of
add-ins for the protocols already mentioned (as well as other exotica).

Those days are gone, if not forgotten. Today's networks are invariably
linked to the Internet, which virtually mandates TCP/IP. And be it for
simplicity's sake (a single protocol is easier to manage than multiple
protocols) or other reasons, TCP/IP pretty much rules the networking world as we
know it today. If all protocols are theoretically equal, TCP/IP is definitely
more equal than all other protocols in practice.

This means that network administrators need to know and understand TCP/IP,
and be familiar with a basic set of commands and utilities to help them
configure, inspect, and troubleshoot this ubiquitous networking protocol suite.
In this article, you'll inspect the contents of a toolkit that most
administrators should be ready to open up and rummage around inside whenever the
need arises. Because of the prevalence of Windows on desktops worldwide, this
story focuses primarily on Windows; where platform differences may intrude, we
mention various alternatives as needed.

Toolkit Layout

Built-in tools and utilities. These come as part of the operating
system (or its normal networking portion or add-ins). These are basic, free, and
essential to learn and understand, no matter what platform you use.

Freeware or shareware add-ins. These are readily available for
download and use on the Internet, and can easily find a slot in a savvy network
administrator's IP toolkit.

Commercial toolsets and applications. These items cost money but
when budgets permit, can add useful and powerful capabilities to an IP
administrator's toolbox. You may have to justify the need for such items,
but they can tell you things you might not otherwise be able to learn (and at a
minimum, should enhance your productivity to justify their cost).